Posted December 31, 201311 yr BBC website: "Labour has a "credible and affordable" plan to help families struggling with the cost of living, Ed Miliband has insisted in his new year message. The opposition leader said the issue of living standards would again be his focus in 2014, accusing ministers of wanting to "change the conversation". While not "promising the Earth", he said Labour pledges on energy bills and childcare would help family budgets. The government said Labour's economic predictions had been proved wrong. Chancellor George Osborne has said signs of a strengthening economic recovery - with growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014 revised sharply upwards and unemployment steadily falling - show his plan is working. But Labour says the UK is still in middle of the "biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation" and, with prices rising faster than wages for most people, the majority continue to feel worse off. “The Tories want to change the conversation from the cost of living crisis.” Ed Miliband "People are thinking they have made the sacrifices and the government keeps telling them that everything is fixed," Mr Miliband said in his traditional end-of-year message to activists. "But it does not seem fixed to them." Mr Miliband signalled he wanted the squeeze on living standards to remain the major political backdrop in 2014. "The Tories want to change the conversation from the cost of living crisis. They will talk about anything else. Inherent in their vision is not a solution to the crisis but the problem. 'More free childcare' "I have a much more optimistic vision about what the country can achieve." While he was not promising people "easy answers", Mr Miliband said Labour's plan to freeze energy bills for 20 months from June 2015, expand free childcare and crack down on payday lenders would "tip the balance towards hope" for many families struggling in the current climate. "People do not want the Earth. They would prefer some very specific promises, specific things about what a government will do," he added. "All of this is adding up to a programme for how we can change things. It is clearly costed, credible and real." The government has said Labour is in denial about the size of the deficit that it left in 2010 and that its plans would result in more borrowing and rising debt. In response, the opposition says borrowing has risen far more since 2010 than Mr Osborne had planned." So, after 4 years prep he's decided a temporary law to make the private sector energy companies charge less, a payday lender toughening (presumably which will bring crisis tipping point forward a few months to those who use them and put off the dates they payback debts), and more free childcare (no specifics on how many, how much and how it's to paid for) is credible, costed and real answer to the current crisis. Oh joy. There are many Labour supporters on BJ, I'm sure you have access to more details than the BBC have cherry-picked on Labour proposals to get us out of the debt crisis, so feel free to elaborate, cos the way this rather short article is written makes it sound like Milliband has nothing much to offer in way of solutions going forward that the other parties aren't already saying...? thanks!
December 31, 201311 yr Edited your opening post slightly to make it a bit easier to read, hope that's alright. By the looks of it, it's in effect a summary speech. He hasn't used it to launch any new policies, but then again how often does that happen? As I see it, the party is worried about peaking too soon and is holding back more popular policies similar to the energy cap for closer to the election in an effort to maintain our poll lead.
December 31, 201311 yr Author Edited your opening post slightly to make it a bit easier to read, hope that's alright. By the looks of it, it's in effect a summary speech. He hasn't used it to launch any new policies, but then again how often does that happen? As I see it, the party is worried about peaking too soon and is holding back more popular policies similar to the energy cap for closer to the election in an effort to maintain our poll lead. no worries, thanks for that. I suspect you're right, but I hope he has a lot more meat to offer than this seemed to suggest, the last thing the electorate needs is 3 posh boys saying much the same thing :o
December 31, 201311 yr As Charlie said, it's no new detail - it's just a summary of a few areas we're moving forward on. Lucy Powell (one of our MPs) is trying to look into a way of ensuring free childcare in the long-term without costing the earth, which is quite definitely not something you'd see the Conservatives saying.
December 31, 201311 yr A lack of detail at this stage is one of the consequences of a fixed term parliament. If there was a strong prospect of an election in 2014 then Labour might be saying rather more.
January 1, 201411 yr Ed Miliband is a man without a plan and a man without a clue, a hopeless bumbling Mr Bean figure All soundbites and hot air Thank god he will never be PM
January 1, 201411 yr BBC website: So, after 4 years prep he's decided a temporary law to make the private sector energy companies charge less, a payday lender toughening (presumably which will bring crisis tipping point forward a few months to those who use them and put off the dates they payback debts), and more free childcare (no specifics on how many, how much and how it's to paid for) is credible, costed and real answer to the current crisis. Oh joy. There are many Labour supporters on BJ, I'm sure you have access to more details than the BBC have cherry-picked on Labour proposals to get us out of the debt crisis, so feel free to elaborate, cos the way this rather short article is written makes it sound like Milliband has nothing much to offer in way of solutions going forward that the other parties aren't already saying...? thanks! Exactly No coherent policies on taxation, immigration or welfare, just soundbites and more soundbites Him and Ed have been found to be hopelessly wrong on the economy too as Osbourne's austerity measures despite the naysayers is soon to turn us into the strongest economy in Europe so if Ed can get something like that hopelessly wrong then he is unfit for government He will just copy his chum Hollande with disasterous consequences He keeps prattling on about the 'cost of living' like some sort of King Canute figure sitting in a chair as the waves roll in trying to hold back the tide while at the same time the economy is surging ahead, inflation is falling so pay rises and falling inflation will take care of his cost of living soundbite
January 1, 201411 yr What pay rises? The CBI said recently that they think pay rises in the private sector this year will be higher than the inflation rate will be by the end of 2014
January 1, 201411 yr Pay rises just aren't going to happen. Craig is living in cloud-cuckoo land. There is an excess supply of skilled and intelligent labour in the UK/Europe and increasingly across the world through globalisation meaning that incentives (i.e. high wages) are not needed, this is certainly true of China and India. Ever increasing automation in manufacturing and in the next decade increasingly in the service industry will lead to a further surplus of labour. Then you've got the whole 'pension deficit crisis' that will continue to accelerate over the next 5-10 years as companies cannot afford these payments and are going to have to choose between continuing to survive by dropping wages (comparative to inflation) or folding. The end result will be a collapse in the UK housing market, which is already completely unaffordable to young people.
January 1, 201411 yr Inflation is forecast to be around 1.5% by the end of next year so it would not take earth shattering pay rises to beat that level, public sector workers are getting 1% and wages usually rise higher in the private sector so even pay rises of 1.6-2% would be above inflation so would ease the cost of living issue Rumours at my company are we are getting 2.1% and i very much doubt that that will be the highest in the private sector
January 1, 201411 yr If pay rises were linked to how much bollocks people talked then you'd be getting a higher rise than the MPs.
January 1, 201411 yr Yeah, Inflation won't fall below 2% anytime soon. With more austerity still to come and rising global demand, inflation is going to remain stubbornly high.
January 1, 201411 yr If pay rises were linked to how much bollocks people talked then you'd be getting a higher rise than the MPs. I prefer the real world tbh And in the real world things are getting a lot better, growth outstripping much of the civilised world, more people in jobs than ever before, the Chinese and Russians are queueing up to buy property in this country and invest in businesses, interest rates are nearly the lowest in the world, many companies cant keep up with demand, stores are packed to the rafters of people buying things Whereas labour like to talk down Britain, whenever unemployment falls instead of praising the government they try blame it on zero hours contracts and benefit sanctions as opposed to the fact that over 30m people have a job for the first time in our history When there is growth instead of congratulating it like patriots labour again find some way of talking it down They are anti Britain
January 1, 201411 yr I prefer the real world tbh And in the real world things are getting a lot better, growth outstripping much of the civilised world, more people in jobs than ever before, the Chinese and Russians are queueing up to buy property in this country and invest in businesses, interest rates are nearly the lowest in the world, many companies cant keep up with demand, stores are packed to the rafters of people buying things Whereas labour like to talk down Britain, whenever unemployment falls instead of praising the government they try blame it on zero hours contracts and benefit sanctions as opposed to the fact that over 30m people have a job for the first time in our history When there is growth instead of congratulating it like patriots labour again find some way of talking it down They are anti Britain So you'd prefer them to blindly accept some severely dodgy statistics as wonderful news just because of an arbitrary flag? No thanks.
January 1, 201411 yr Craig: You are in for a serious wake-up call in 2014. The 'growth' that we've seen in the UK is all DEBT FUELLED. It will end in another 2007 style disaster. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25152556
January 1, 201411 yr Debt is still running at over 140% of household income. The nation of Greece has a Debt to income ratio of 156% which should prove just how dangerous this supposed recovery is. It's unsustainable, not having any effect outside of the square mile and when the bubble bursts (not if, WHEN) it's going to bankrupt this country because our recovery is debt fuelled and not driven by true growth.
Create an account or sign in to comment